Strange civilians
Sorea and her group didn't take the newly accepted one-star mission too seriously. With three demigods among their six members, they could easily handle most four-star missions. On their way to the mission's destination, they joked and played around like tourists, and the sense of distance between them gradually lessened.
"Alright, we're almost at our destination. We'll set off after we finish eating. Everyone, be serious," Edward said, looking at the map in his hand and reminding the others who had been chatting.
Lilith glanced at Soraya, who was struggling to find her location on the map, and thinking of their previous experience at sea, she put her arm around Soraya's shoulder and said, "My dear Miss Soraya, you don't actually need to look at the map. After all, you almost made us get lost when you looked at the map last time."
"Hahahaha, no wonder Big Brother always says that Sister's survival energy is practically nonexistent." Louis laughed so hard he bent over upon hearing Lilith's words.
Hearing their commotion, Solaya glanced at them expressionlessly before continuing to study the map. Solaya vowed to avenge herself and learn how to read a map!
Their destination was Vespera, a major city in the Iron Kingdom, and a textile factory in the center of the city.
This textile factory has not allowed its workers to go home for almost a month now. When the workers' families went to the factory to look for them, they were confronted by the workers who claimed that they were disturbing their work and started arguing with the families.
The matter was reported to the Knights Guild branch in Vespera, and the knights of the branch went to investigate. They found that the workers inside only needed to rest for two hours at their workstations before they could continue working.
The knights suspected there might be an exhilarating inscribed item inside, but after multiple investigations, they found nothing. They had no choice but to order the textile factory to cease operations and request another investigation from the Knights' Guild headquarters. Based on the branch knights' report, headquarters determined the item posed little harm to the workers, and since all the workers had gone home to rest, the textile factory incident was classified as a one-star item-finding quest.
"That's how it is." Sorea was afraid that Louise and Lilith, who had only been playing during the past few days of travel, would forget the team's mission, so she repeated the information the knights had given her.
With the unanimous suggestion of the six, their team leader was the strongest, Sorea, while Lilith, the second strongest, said she didn't want to deal with miscellaneous tasks, so the position of vice-captain fell to Edward.
Vivian had already seen the city gate. Looking at the group of people next to her whose faces looked as if they had been kissed by a god, she stopped in her tracks and hesitantly offered her opinion: "You are all too dazzling. It seems to be a disadvantage for us to go in and gather information."
The other five people sized each other up. Sorea had never heard of a pretty face being a disadvantage for gathering information before, and she tilted her head in confusion, asking, "Is that true?"
Vivian nodded affirmatively: "You probably don't realize it because most of the people around you are good-looking. In crowded places, an overly beautiful face becomes a target."
"I thought as long as it wasn't conspicuous, it would be fine." Although Sorea changed the color of her eyes and hair, she did not change her facial features.
There was still a lot of the potion that Soraya used to change appearances left. After they were distributed and drunk, the six people became more and more ordinary, and could not be found in a crowd at all.
"This medicine works really well. How long will it last?" Louis touched his face, quite satisfied with his ordinary new appearance.
"Permanent!" Soraya created a water mirror and carefully examined herself.
"What!"
"Are you kidding me?!"
Louis and Vivian both let out a bloodcurdling scream.
Louis was interested in the new face, but he didn't want to keep wearing that ugly face. Vivian, on the other hand, was an absolute face-obsessed person. She didn't see her own face much anyway, but the thought of not being able to see the beautiful faces around her would drive her crazy.
Seeing that Soraya was not speaking, Yu'an panicked a little and looked at her nervously: "Sister, are you joking?"
Lilith and Edward knew that Sorea was probably just teasing the child, but they were afraid that she wasn't.
"Hahahaha." Sorea burst out laughing when she saw the shocked and frightened expressions on the faces of the unfamiliar people.
Solaya calmly straightened her clothes and said, "I haven't finished yet. This potion is permanent, that's true, but you just need to drink the antidote I have here."
"Sis! How could you scare me like that!" Louis pounced on Sorea in dissatisfaction.
Sorea was pinned to the grass by him, and she smiled at him, saying threateningly, "I haven't administered the antidote yet, are you sure you don't want to please me?"
Upon hearing Soleria's words, Louis jumped up and, like a lackey, pulled Soleria up and began massaging her.
"Stop fooling around. We need to remember what we look like now, or we might not recognize our teammates. We'll split up and go into the city in pairs to gather information. We'll meet at the textile factory gate in three hours." Sorea tossed the antidote to everyone and then gave the order.
To ensure safety, the three demigods, led by Soraya, each took one person who had not yet reached the demigod level.
Sorea chose Euan. Everyone thought that Lilith and Louise couldn't work together, so the steady Edward took the lively Louise with him, while Vivian and Lilith worked together.
"Sis, what should we do first after we go in?" This was actually the first time Yuan and Sorea were alone together, and Yuan had lost her memory. The two walked together for a long time without knowing what to say. Finally, Yuan broke the silence.
Sorea thought for a moment, "Actually, I always feel that the information headquarters gave us is problematic or incomplete. Let's go and see if there's anything wrong with the environment in the city."
Sorea believes that since the branch knights did not find any inscribed items inside the factory, the problem may lie in the external environment.
Upon entering Vespera's main street, Solaya noticed for the first time how different this place was from the Sea of Death.
In the Sea of Death, the steam facilities proposed by Yuan were only used for transportation and military purposes. However, the Iron Kingdom, as a vassal state of the God of Forging, would research and invent new things whenever they appeared. Therefore, the entire city of Vespella applied "steam" and "new machinery"—things that could make life easier for the common people.
As Soraya walked along, observing the vibrant lives of the common people, she decided that when she returned, she would have Dagmore learn about the lifestyle of the common people in the Steel Kingdom.
Vespera was the most bustling city Solaya had ever seen, with busy civilians walking the streets, each with an excited expression on their face.
Every shop they passed was greeted with a smile by its owner; the whole city was vibrant and thriving.
Sorea initially felt that the city was very vibrant, greeting everyone who greeted her with a smile, but after walking for an hour and a half, she could no longer maintain her smile.
As Soraya stopped, Yuan also stopped, clearly having the same feeling as Soraya.
Sorea's face was twitching from laughing so hard, and Yuan, who had been gone for so long, wanted to find a place to sit down.
But along the way, they didn't see anyone who wasn't smiling, nor did they see anyone resting. Everyone was working, and everyone's smile was similar.
Sorea doesn't believe that everyone is without problems, worries, and complicated emotions, and that everyone in the city is working and happy.
"sister……"
"An, don't talk, smile, let's keep going." Sorea stopped Yuan the moment he opened his mouth, then smiled and pulled Yuan forward.
Only then did Yu'an notice that when they stopped, everyone's eyes were on them. When they saw them resting, the smiles on those people's faces disappeared, and they stared at them with reproachful eyes.
Sorea felt a chill run down her spine from the group's stares, and goosebumps rose on her skin. She immediately pulled Yuan forward, and after watching their actions, the people staring at them returned to normal.
"Something's not right here. Let's find Lilith and Edward first, and then we need to get out of here quickly," Sorea transmitted to Euan. Euan nodded almost imperceptibly in agreement.
The two walked slowly toward the city gate without making a sound. Sorea decided to look for her teammates while finding a safe escape route. Sorea felt that since she and Euan had discovered the strangeness of this place, Lilith and Edward should also have some sense of it, so they would definitely look for a way out.
When Soraya led Yuan to the city gate, she saw that there were no guards at the gate. Soraya decided to send Yuan out first so that he could find a deserted place to send out a distress signal, and she would come back to find the others.
But Yu'an had no way to get out of the city gate; he was bounced back by the barrier as soon as he reached the entrance.
Sorea went over to help and used her power to test the barrier's sturdiness. She discovered that breaking the barrier required her to cast a large-scale inscribed totem array. Once she cast the array, the residents would definitely find her. Since she hadn't found anyone else yet, if they were surrounded, everyone would be in great danger.
Sorea had no choice but to abandon the idea of sending Yuan away.
Seeing that they couldn't leave, Yu'an frowned and asked Soraya, "Sister, where do we go now?"
“Go to the textile factory. I’m sure Lilith and Edward can’t leave here. They’ll definitely come to the textile factory to meet us.”
Just as Sorea had predicted, they saw Edward and Lilith waiting for them at the entrance of the textile factory from afar.
Seeing Edward's solemn expression, Sorea looked up at the factory right in front of her. With just one glance, her pupils widened unconsciously, and an expression of disbelief appeared on her face.
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